The Hon. Wendy Beetlestone

Judge Beetlestone was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, where her parents worked as academics at the University of Ibadan.  After leaving Nigeria with her family as a teenager, she attended the University of Liverpool, graduating with honors in philosophy.  While at Liverpool she was also editor-in-chief of the university newspaper, The Guild and City Gazette, and was elected by the student body to serve as Welfare and National Union of Students sabbatical officer for the Guild of Undergraduates.

After graduation, Judge Beetlestone worked as a journalist at the British Broadcasting Company before being recruited by CNN in Atlanta and, eventually, moving to Philadelphia to work as a news producer at Channel 10.  After six years as a journalist, Judge Beetlestone decided to pursue a longstanding interest in the law.  She attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School, serving on the law review as an articles editor and interning for Judge Jan E. Dubois.  She then served as a law clerk for the late Judge Robert Gawthrop, III (U.S.D.C. E.D.Pa.).

After clerking Judge Beetlestone became an associate, then partner, at the law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP where she developed a wide-ranging complex civil litigation practice.  She then served as the General Counsel for the School District of Philadelphia before returning to the private practice of law as a shareholder at Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller.  Each year from 2008 through 2014 Judge Beetlestone was selected by the publication Best Lawyers in America as a Best Lawyer in America in the field of Education Law and in 2012 she was first named as one of the top 250 women in litigation in the United States by the Benchmark publication. 

Judge Beetlestone has been active in numerous community and professional organizations.  Shortly before taking the bench, she served as the President of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation, on the executive committee of the Board of Trustees of Philadelphia University, and as a member of Pennsylvania’s State Board of Education.

In 2019 Judge Beetlestone was awarded two honorary degrees – from Drexel University and from Liverpool University.

Judge Beetlestone was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama on June 16, 2014, was confirmed by unanimous voice vote by the United States Senate on November 20, 2014, and received her judicial commission on November 21, 2014.